David Ballenberger, Director of Business Development for NextStep Solutions, discusses the changes that are on the horizon for behavioral health EHRs. The need to offer documented value to your practice is increasing, and the ability to prove that your treatments are working with your clients, will determine how much you will be paid for your services. The best way to do this is by properly monitoring and assessing your clients with a reliable behavioral health EHR solution.

Change is coming. No matter how often I say that to people in behavioral health, they all look at me like: “what are you talking about?” Soon, you’ll need to prove that whatever you are doing is worth being paid for, and people don’t seem to be catching on to that concept. When I go places and people tell me that they are doing eight different assessments with the clients, I ask “Why”? You need one assessment that gives you data that let’s you drive the treatment plan, but also lets you collect the information you need to work on what you need to do. This is the change that is coming. When the Medicaid auditors show up, you are going to be asked to prove that what you did was effective; that you changed treatment plans if you needed to change them, and that the people in your program were actually getting service based upon need–not what staff think is a neat idea.